The 23-month-old Bridgeton boy killed, burned and dismembered in February died of blunt force trauma that included multiple bone fractures, prosecutors revealed during a hearing Thursday.

Nakira M. Griner, 25, is accused of killing Daniel Griner Jr., then claiming he was abducted. Police found the child’s charred remains at the family’s home hours after Griner reported she was assaulted while walking to the store with her kids.

During a contentious hearing in Cumberland County on Thursday morning, Griner’s attorney tried to win her pre-trial release from a county jail, arguing that the state failed to consider her husband as a suspect.

Public Defender Kimberly Schultz filed a motion last week seeking her client’s release from jail, arguing that in March, Daniel Griner Sr. told prosecutors he struck the boy with a belt at least four times in the days prior to the child’s death. He was not charged with a crime.

Prosecutors were too quick to charge the mother, Schultz argued, and the father’s admission opens the possibility that he is a suspect.

Superior Court Judge Robert Malestein denied the defense motion, finding that the new information about the father didn’t change his decision that the mother should remain jailed.

He granted a prosecution motion, however, to extend the period to indict Griner by an additional 45 days because of the complexity of the case.

Prosecutors recently received autopsy, anthropology and toxicology reports, Senior Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Vogelsong stated, which confirmed the identity of the victim and that he died of blunt force trauma. The injuries that killed the child occurred at the time of death, she said, and included multiple bone fractures.

Other efforts to gain evidence, including from Google and Facebook, are ongoing, she said.

Schultz sparred with Vogelsong during the hearing, with the public defender arguing that the state was stalling for time by seeking an extension to indict.

“Your honor, this is nothing more than a delay tactic,” Schultz said. “The state should have fully investigated this case before they decided to charge my client.”

Vogelsong countered that the investigation has continued non-stop. Those efforts included sending detectives to Florida to speak to possible witnesses.

“This has been a continued investigation from the time that we’ve charged it,” she said. "It’s not something that we’ve delayed in any way.”

Daniel Griner Jr.

Schultz argued that both parents had access to the child during the time period in which prosecutors believe he was killed. She also noted that the state doesn’t really know when the child died.

“If they know exactly what happened, then present it to a grand jury and let them decide,” she said. “If they don’t know what happened then release my client and figure out what happened. The state can’t have it both ways.”

“Delaying this case any further is an injustice, both to my client and to the victim in this case.”

Vogelsong responded that Daniel Griner Sr. was investigated. Detectives reviewed security camera video at the hospital where he works as a registered nurse to confirm he was there during his entire 12-hour shift, which covers the time period during which they think the victim died.

“He was never at the house when we believe the child was killed,” Vogelsong said. “Nothing in our investigation has shown that Mr. Griner Sr. was involved in the death of the child. Absolutely nothing.”

Vogelsong also clarified that the belt incident the father described involved a single incident in which he struck the child four times, rather than four separate incidents.

As for why the investigation has stretched on so long, the prosecutor attributed that to the defendant.

“The reason this case has taken so long has nothing to do with a delay tactic,” she said. “It has to do with the condition the child was in. And the reason for the condition the child was in is because of the defendant.”

She sought Griner’s release from jail so that she could receive proper care and repeated those concerns Thursday.

Griner did not appear in court for her original detention hearing, but did appear for Thursday’s session.

She said nothing during the hearing and showed no emotion as the attorneys argued their points.

Griner, who is currently housed in Cape May County’s jail, initially told police she was attacked and knocked to the ground Feb. 8 while walking to a store in downtown Bridgeton with Daniel in a stroller and her infant strapped to her chest. When she looked up, Daniel and the stroller were gone, she said.

After changing her story about the abduction and failing a polygraph test, she admitted striking Daniel after he refused to eat his breakfast. She told investigators she hit him so hard that it left bruises on his face and also claimed he had fallen down a flight of stairs.

Griner claimed she left her son alive and alone in the stroller on a street “because she wanted someone to find him and help him because no one would believe her,” police noted in their report.

When police arrived at the Griner home, they found windows open, fans running and an officer noticed a burning odor. Burned and dismembered human remains were found in a handbag and in trash bags under a shed.